from “Copy”

translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers

To reassemble oneself. Proactivity, opportunism: an order. 
A tongue,  leaving.   A gesture, setting sail:   a singular place. 
You’re the one who  answers  the interrogations,  the one who 
stops,  identity in hand,  at every checkpoint.  Copiously.  You, 
not I, are the loser.  Copiously.  The bad traffic, suspect of the 
rage spilling out onto the world.  You’re the one drowning in 
your own shadow.  You live because another five hundred sol-
diers  were  tasked   with  your  disappearance.  To  reassemble 
oneself.  You, not I, are the one who responds:  my chest hides 
nothing but the dark honey of the one with neither place nor exit.

Credit

From Copy by Dolores Dorantes, translated by Robin Myers. Copyright © 2022 Dolores Dorantes and Robin Myers. Reprinted with the permission of the author, translator, and Wave Books.